Neeraj Chopra
– Photo: Social Media
Expansion
Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Neeraj Chopra has become the first athlete from the country to become the world’s number one javelin thrower. No athlete of the country had reached the number one position till date. Neeraj has been ranked number one with 1455 points in the ranking issued by World Athletics. He has left world champion Andersen Peters of Grenada behind by 22 points.
Chopra was at number two for eight months
The 25-year-old Neeraj was ranked world number two since August 30, 2022. Peters had been the world’s number one javelin thrower, but after winning the gold with 88.67m in Doha on May 5, he unseated Peters as the world number one. Peters had finished third in Doha with a throw of 85.88m. Neeraj also won the final of the Diamond League held in Zurich (Switzerland) in September last year. Neeraj, who set a national record of 89.94m, will now become world number one when he will compete in the Fanny Blankers Koen Games in the Netherlands on June 4. After this he will play in Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku (Finland) on 13th June. Here he had won silver last year.
Pakistan’s Nadeem at number 5 in the world
Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Yakub Valdezche of the Czech Republic is third, European champion Julian Weber of Germany is fourth and Birmingham Commonwealth Games gold medalist Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan is fifth in the rankings. India’s Rohit Yadav (15th) and DP Manu (17th) round out the top 20.
